THE STORY OF MY LIFE
BY HELEN KELLER
WITH HER LETTERS (1887-1901)
AND A SUPPLEMENTARY ACCOUNT OF HER EDUCATION,
INCLUDING PASSAGES FROM THE REPORTS AND LETTERS
OF HER TEACHER, ANNE MANSFIELD SULLIVAN
By John Albert Macy
Special Edition, Illustrated
CONTAINING ADDITIONAL CHAPTERS BY HELEN KELLER
To ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL
Who has taught the deaf to speak
and enabled the listening ear to hear speech
from the Atlantic to the Rockies,
I dedicate
this Story of My Life.
Editor’s Preface
This book is in three parts. The first two, Miss
Keller’s story
and the extracts from her letters, form a complete
account of her
life as far as she can give it. Much of her education
she cannot
explain herself, and since a knowledge of that is
necessary to an
understanding of what she has written, it was thought
best to
supplement her autobiography with the reports and
letters of her
teacher, Miss Anne Mansfield Sullivan. The addition
of a further
account of Miss Keller’s personality and achievements
may be
unnecessary; yet it will help to make clear some of
the traits of
her character and the nature of the work which she
and her
teacher have done.
For the third part of the book the Editor is responsible,
though
all that is valid in it he owes to authentic records
and to the
advice of Miss Sullivan.
The Editor desires to express his gratitude and the
gratitude of
Miss Keller and Miss Sullivan to The Ladies’
Home Journal and to
its editors, Mr. Edward Bok and Mr. William V. Alexander,
who
have been unfailingly kind and have given for use
in this book
all the photographs which were taken expressly for
the Journal;
and the Editor thanks Miss Keller’s many friends
who have lent
him her letters to them and given him valuable information;
especially Mrs. Laurence Hutton, who supplied him
with her large
collection of notes and anecdotes; Mr. John Hitz,
Superintendent
of the Volta Bureau for the Increase and Diffusion
of Knowledge
relating to the Deaf; and Mrs. Sophia C. Hopkins,
to whom Miss
Sullivan wrote those illuminating letters, the extracts
from
which give a better idea of her methods with her pupil
than
anything heretofore published.
Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin and Company have courteously
permitted
the reprinting of Miss Keller’s letter to Dr.
Holmes, which
appeared in “Over the Teacups,” and one
of Whittier’s letters to
Miss Keller. Mr. S. T. Pickard, Whittier’s
literary executor,
kindly sent the original of another letter from Miss
Keller to
Whittier.
John Albert Macy.
Cambridge, Massachusetts, February 1, 1903.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Editor’s Preface
Part I. The Story of My Life Chapter I-XXIII
II. Introduction
to Letters, Letters
III. A Supplementary
Account of Helen Keller’s Life and
Education
Chapter
I. The Writing of the Book
II.
Personality
III.
Education
IV.
Speech
V.
Literary Style
